REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

ILOILO PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

PROVINCIAL ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES OFFICE
5th Floor Provincial Capitol, Iloilo City
website:www.penro.lgu.gov.ph Email: penro_l gu.iloilo@ya hoo.com

Paper for the International Scientific Conference on Fisheries and aquatic Sciences:
Towards Disaster and Climate Resilience
Topic: Actors and Institutions involved in adaptation, mitigation and building of resilient
communities and developmental processes.

LGU-led Ridge to Reef Development approach with innovative Climate Change

Adaptation Programs and Watershed Score Card System
Ma. Lea Escantilla
Technical Officer, PENRO
Iloilo Provincial Government

ABSTRACT

The Provincial Government of Iloilo is one of the few LGUs in the country with a functional

structure that will oversee and manage the development of its watershed areas. The Iloilo
Watershed Management Council, organized in 2001, now has 26 sub watershed management
councils/boards within its structure and is continuously developing mechanisms to ensure the
sustainable management of its watershed areas through the ridge to reef approach.

The organized boards and technical working groups for every watershed unit are tasked to
formulate their individual State of the Watershed Report and plans. These watershed plans cover
nine development parameters: Forest, Water Quality and Quantity, Biodiversity, Riparian and
Coastal, Waste Management, Watershed governance, Social and Indigenous Peoples, DRRM and
Agriculture and Livelihood.
To gauge the level of development in the watershed units, the Governors Prize on Blue
Waters Competition was launched. It was also designed to promote awareness among stakeholders,
LGU local executives and environment planners on the importance of watershed-based planning
and management. The competition uses a set of watershed score cards designed to capture the
gains in each of the nine watershed development parameters. This local initiative coupled with
climate change adaptation innovations like rainwater harvesting technologies and the ART for CCA
(Action for Re-greening and Transformation) program in upland, mangrove and beach forest are
milestones in watershed-based, LGU-led development.
The paper presents the efforts being made by the various watershed stakeholders- Local
Government Units in Iloilo, NGAs, NGOs, water districts, POs and Business groups in making the
watershed councils functional. It will also present the innovations and climate change adaptation
initiatives being implemented by the Iloilo Provincial Government in its effort to consolidate
programs and projects affecting its natural resources through the ridge-to-reef approach.